Hinch’s drinking vow criticised by Australian Liver Foundation

Senator Derryn Hinch has declared he won't stop drinking despite falling from an Uber outside his home, and suffering what he described as a minor brain trauma.

The 74-year-old liver transplant recipient said he had drunk two glasses of wine on Monday night, while dining with friends, before getting an Uber home, and falling outside his St Kilda Road apartment in Melbourne.

"I was unconscious, knocked out. There's a big lump on the back of my head. The next thing I knew was in the Alfred Hospital, um lots of tubes coming out of me and little metal studs all over you for the heart and stuff. They kept me overnight for observation," he said.

Mr Hinch said despite his life-saving liver transplant, he will continue to drink. (AAP) (AP/AAP)

For years the long-time journalist and broadcaster-turned politician, has been known as the 'Human Headline'.

Today was yet again, an example of why as the Senator made his own news.

By 9.15am he'd done several rounds of radio interviews, before he set foot outside the apartment building to a waiting throng of journalists.

His drinking was brought up after he suffered a head injury getting out of an Uber this week. (AAP) (AP/AAP)

"Stephen Hawking dies and this makes page one of the Herald Sun, that's crazy… Anyway,” he said.

"Can I ask the first question?" he spurted out, "were you pissed? No! Okay, saves you doing it."

He then opened it up to questions with a "right fire away”, and the gathering of journalists did exactly that for ten minutes.

There were questions about whether he was ashamed, embarrassed, whether the self-confessed former heavy drinker had fallen off the wagon.

He was adamant he had not.

(Nine) (Supplied)

"I'm embarrassed by it yeah. It happened right over there on the grass. I tripped on the gutter, being flippant I'd say you shouldn't wear a knee brace and Cuban heels at the same time,” he said, referring to the incident which unfolded about 11pm.

"So you don't have a problem with alcohol?" he was asked.

The response was assertive and short "no”.

Hinch's battle with the booze has been extensive. For years he was a heavy drinker of red wine, Shiraz in particular.

But in late the 2000s he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver, the disease that almost claimed his life.

In an interview with 60 Minutes in November 2010, he had tears in his eyes, after his doctor revealed the cancer was "a bad cancer, it's a bad disease, it's not just going to sit there dormant for a long time", and he needed a transplant.

60 Minutes journalist Tara Brown asked him, "If you do get a new liver would you start drinking again?" Hinch's reply was empathetic: "oh, never!"

Mr Hinch walks out to front the media. (AAP) (Nine)

But this morning’s newspaper reveal from the Herald Sun wasn't the first time since his successful transplant in 2011 that it's been reported Hinch had broken that pledge.

In 2016, his then partner took to Twitter, claiming Hinch had been drinking for 12 months declaring "so much for respecting organ donor's gift of life. No loyalty".

Hinch hit back at the time, declaring he was "welcomed" to "the world of bunny boilers".

Now today he confessed, “it is true I didn't have a drink for five years, and thought, and swore I'd never drink again.

“But I thought you've got to live your life. I'm here until I’m lying on a slab for the last time.

"I'm here to live my life to the best that I can and the best of my ability. I'm loving being a politician, I'm loving being in the Senate I'm loving having achieved something."

He said it's his doctor that has given him the tick of approval to drink alcohol twice a week.

"The liver transplant program in Australia is based upon serious undertakings given by the people who participate, that they will not drink and they will maintain a healthy lifestyle. "

"It's laid down by the Liver Physicians' Association that that's the case, and it's a strict protocol for obvious reasons.

“This just simply is very, very difficult for survival of the patients, so the whole program gets called in to question, because people say why are you doing these things if someone's just going to go back and court the disease which gave them the problem in the first place."

Hinch denied his drinking was disrespecting the family of the man whose organ had been donated to him.

"I'm very appreciative of the family of donor and I've met them many times over the years. My donor had his own problems which are quite ironic," he said.

Mr Hinch is now back at work; in fact, 36 hours after the fall he was back in Canberra at an event at the War Memorial for an Arts Prize.

He was fitted for a heart monitor today, and is vowing to continue to drink.

At the moment, he said it's two glasses twice a week, sometimes mixed with water.

"I figure you've got to live your life. I used to own a vineyard until the bank decided they needed it more than I did and then I had to give it back. If my quality of life is improved by somebody having a glass of wine, then I will.

"I did it once and I won't do it again, I won't water down a glass of Grange, that's a pledge."

In fact, Hinch will be attending tomorrow night's Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards, and invited journalists to visit him at this table.